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My mother's going to buy a new laptop within these weeks, but she's too stubborn to make her understand that she can get better deals for her money with other PCs... so, as she's determined to buy this one, I would like some technical advice about it. How well will it perform? Do you think it's worth the money? (I don't, but meh...)

So, that's it. I don't think it's a good purchase for €999... At least, I've seen 'better' laptops for just a little more. I don't know much about hardware, but... AFAIK, the Intel Core 2 Duo processors are really good, aren't they? My PC, the one I'm writing from, has a 3.06GHz Intel Petium 4. How is the one in this laptop compared to the one I have?

Well, that's all. I know there are better deals out there, but my mother's buying a fridge in this same store, so adding up items would increase the payment facilities she'll be given.

Should try to get a dedicated video card with it. Although I doubt she will be using it for much. As for Vista or XP is up to preference I guess. Personally I'm sticking with XP for another year or so til they work out more bugs in Vista. Other than that, specs are all good. Price wise, I'm not from Europe so I don't know the prices for laptops there, but here, you could find one similar for cheaper I believe.

My mother's going to buy a new laptop within these weeks, but she's too stubborn to make her understand that she can get better deals for her money with other PCs... so, as she's determined to buy this one, I would like some technical advice about it. How well will it perform? Do you think it's worth the money? (I don't, but meh...)

So, that's it. I don't think it's a good purchase for €999... At least, I've seen 'better' laptops for just a little more. I don't know much about hardware, but... AFAIK, the Intel Core 2 Duo processors are really good, aren't they? My PC, the one I'm writing from, has a 3.06GHz Intel Petium 4. How is the one in this laptop compared to the one I have?

Well, that's all. I know there are better deals out there, but my mother's buying a fridge in this same store, so adding up items would increase the payment facilities she'll be given.

Thanks in advance.

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That's not a Core 2 Duo it's an original Core Duo, those get hotter and are not as good as the Core 2's. Personally for almost 2 grand that PC = crap.

Yes, that is exactly what I was fearing: I'm being charged for the HP logo, not for the laptop itself. Cubin', I know what you mean: almost everything will be enough for my mother. But I don't want her to spend €1000 on this when she could be spending more or less the same on a way better PC.

But, what if we don't take into consideration 'gaming' PCs? Could you give me an accurate hypothetical performance of this laptop? I mean... how would it perform with Vista and that hardware setup, how good's the CPU (which is listed as Core 2 Duo, BTW... I just copied what the store had written), how will the integrated video card affect the RAM's performance and all that.

Not for us mortals it doesn't. My father has the same setup only with a different videocard. Vista does not run for crap. Seriously, it is SO slow. I disabled all fancy functions..and it still feels so incredibly sluggish.

Does she get her money's worth? That also depends a lot on whether she feels she does. My parents are so stubborn that it does not matter that I tell em they're being ripped off as long as they still have a good feeling about it. Personally I think it seems decent for someone who does not want a lot of hassle. Just keep in mind vista can crack it like a walnut especially for someone who won't do a lot of maintenance on her computer.

edit: I should add that I'm biased cause I looked up how much euro's 999 dollars is..and it's not a lot these days.

Well, after much arguing, I finally made her realise that laptop wasn't worth it. Now, and through the ICO (Instituto Oficial de Crédito - Official Credit Institution), we'll be trying to get a cheap loan (like €10/month without any taxes the first few years) and get a real laptop. The ICO gives us %100 of the PC's value, with a maximum of €3000, so that's far more than enough to get something 'decent'

I'll check with you guys later, when I've picked several models to compare. Thanks for the help a bunch